Its the calm before the Super Bowl storm this week. Plenty of extra time to read informative articles from the Senior Living Industry:
Always nice to lead with optimism:
Great reasons to get involved at senior centers:
http://www.boomerplaces.com/boomer-senior-center/
Needed Technologies Advice from LeadingAge:
http://www.leadingage.org/Article.aspx?id=4387
There are many considerations when planning an ad campaign:
First, what are your goals? It is calls, visits or clicks, spreading a message, awareness or special offer? Set your goals & then decide how best to reach them.
Will you do a print campaign, billboards, TV, radio, online, direct mail, email, or a combination? All are viable options, depending on your goals. Don’t forget the studies showing you need 7 touches before a potential client will contact you! Use as many mediums as possible to present your message.
Speaking of, what is your message? Will it make people react and take the next step? Print it and have some people give you their feedback. More importantly, gauge their reaction as they read it. Does it have the “wow” factor? Does it promote your unique selling point? Does it contain a call to action? If you have a lot to say, offer to include an article/interview with the ad.
Once you decide on a message, you can start working on materials. It will be different for each medium, but needs to be tied together, have the same look and feel and the same message, so there is no confusion. Ads, whether print, online, or broadcast need to be simple! Don’t stuff it with text, people will tune out. Make your point & present the call to action. Why should they call, click or visit? Ads also need to be pleasing to the eyes/ear. Unless you are going for shock value, create an ad with pleasing colors, complimentary to your logo and pictures as well as the site/background where it will be printed or hosted. For audio, ask, “What will make them remember my message?” Consider landing pages for online campaigns. A simple web page with one offer/message from which you can gather information, track & not confuse the user. Try some test for email messages. Which gets more response?
Now you are ready for the easy part, ad placement. Always ask print & broadcast entities about including your ad online, as well.
You can’t & won’t know if you have a successful ad campaign unless you track it. Before the ads start, make sure you can track them. Will the online vendor track impressions, clicks & leads? Can you track them from your side as well to compare (again, consider a landing page, personalized URL, etc…)? How will you track print & broadcast ads? Did you use a specific URL &/or phone # or are you going to rely on someone to ask? The first is much more reliable due to human nature on both sides. Continue tracking past ad runs, as we see leads come from very old guides! You may want to ask if there is more than one referral (back to that 7 touch rule). And don’t forget to do some investigation on your own. Do you hear & see the ad/publication? When you search, do you find the site? Is your ad in a prominent spot?
Once you have results you can start tweaking. Which media/ad is bringing in more results? What is the cost per action? Are you getting unexpected publicity/traffic/other from a campaign? Tweak your ad type, creative, placement and message until you achieve your goals!
Social Media is being touted as one of the best new mediums to reach your clientele. Rather it’s thru blogging, discussion boards, social sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and others, there are numerous opportunities to reach current & potential clients and referring agents.
New LifeStyles would like to help you reach those individuals thru our social network:
Be an active participant in the New LifeStyles senior living blog &/or forum providing answers to senior living questions:
You can drive the topic and market your community and services during a week in 2012. Send one post with helpful senior living information & one with information about your community/services. Take the opportunity at any time to browse the forum to comment on &/or answer any posts, as well.
Reply now with the week you would like to promote your senior community or service on the New LifeStyles forum. All post will be linked on the New LifeStyles Facebook page, Twitter account, and LinkedIn page.
Another value ad from New LifeStyles Media Solutions
With capital at a premium and financial stress prevalent throughout the industry, acquisitions continue to increase in the senior living industry. Large companies with decent balance sheets continue to look for ways to expand and spread their infrastructure across more revenue producing units. This can have both positive and negative effects on the communities that are being acquired.
On the positive sign, communities struggling to provide quality care and services receive a boost in support, often times receiving facelifts and updates to the property. New programs brought in by the acquiring company may add to the quality of life where the previous owner had been forced to reduce or eliminate expenditures that weren’t considered vital to the health and well-being of the residents. This could include activities and outings that while not vital to residents’ health, are vital to quality of life. There also may be improvements in dining options or quality.
On the other side, corporations may send down new policies and procedures to the acquired communities that may hurt the personality or culture of a property. Staff may be reduced and corporate may look to share staff between properties in the area. These factors can lead to a complete change in the personality of your community, as the staff and activities can shape the culture. This type of scenario has lead to residents leaving a local property that I am familiar with and made it more difficult to sell the lifestyles to perspective residents.
If you are involved with a community that is being acquired, talk to the acquiring company as soon as possible. Show them what makes your community unique and fight to maintain the culture that has made your community’s lifestyle so popular amongst current and perspective residents!
No, they aren’t lost. In fact, they are being found quite often on our website. New LifeStyles added the digital versions of our guides to senior living and care in 2010 and traffic to them has grown ever since. In 2011, there was over 15,000 views of our digital guides. This is bonus traffic for your placement with New LifeStyles, as the cost of participating in the digital version is included in the cost for your print placement (which also includes online and mobile). We didn’t raise our prices to hide the extra cost, as our rates have stayed steady for over three years.
When considering a placement with New LifeStyles, factor in the extra traffic from all of these sources. If you don’t advertise with New LifeStyles, make sure you are hitting all of the mediums included in your placement with us – print, online, digital and mobile. It is key make sure people can find you in every and any way! Continued success!
Thank you for your positive feedback on our free client webinars in 2011! To continue on that path, we will continue to offer quarterly educational webinars to our clients, starting this month with: “Opening Relationships” with your prospects vs. “Closing Sales”- Your new approach to successful new client development
New LifeStyles clients are invited to participate in this free marketing webinar presented by Rick Hunsicker, a nationally recognized expert in senior living sales and marketing, about a new approach to sales in senior living.
You will gain insight into a different approach with your prospective new clients, family members and professional referral sources, that moves you away from closing sales, and leads you and your customer toward building strong, long term business relationships.
Rick will present examples of what you should say in the early and later stages of your presentations to your prospects and referral sources to help you gain more and stronger relationships that ultimately results in more sales and referrals.
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| Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/529526334 |
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We will continue the webinars in April with “How to Stop the #1 Leak in Your Sales and Marketing this Year” with Mona Hilton. In July, Reece Franklin will present “The Perfect Pitch Piece” and in October Patty Cisco will cover the current state of affairs and how to market despite them.
If you have missed any of the webinars in 2011, you can watch them on your schedule at http://www.newlifestyles.com/clients/webinars
As always, thank you to our clients! we hope you find these webinars helpful. Please send us your feedback on other topics you would like to see covered.
As we start the new year, we will attempt to continue to provide value every Friday afternoon:
Social media is for connecting, not just for pushing your message:
http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2095174/people-connect-marketed
Digital Trends for 2012:
A great community program:
http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/a-community-time-bank/
Welcome to 2012! From all of us at New LifeStyles, we wish you a healthy and prosperous New Year! Hopefully, this will be a great year for your community or business and the senior living and care industry as a whole. There are plenty of challenges to be faced, but also plenty of great people to face them.
The New Year is a great time for companies to take inventory of their operations and see what changes need to be made in 2012. Here are a few suggestions from a marketing perspective:
- Are your marketing materials up to date and “fresh”? Take a look at your brochures, ad materials, etc. and see if they represent your message.
- Is your web site still current? Is it inviting to visitors and showing off your assets in a clear, easy to find manner. Are you using a company to optimize your site’s search engine results and linking with companies that can bring you better traffic.
- Is your marketing team united in their approach? Are they armed with the needed knowledge and materials? Are they getting across the key selling points of your community or service in a succinct, clear manner?
- Is the drive-up appeal of your community still appealing? Is some fresh paint and new flowers or plants needed?
New LifeStyles can help you by redesigning materials for our publications, reviewing your web site, providing cost effective SEO services and many other ways, just give us a call!
January is the space reservation deadline for the following markets:
New copies of our guide should be arriving for the following markets:
- Houston
- Fort Worth/Tarrant County
- San Diego
- Central and Eastern Pennsylvania (Philadelphia)
For more information, contact us immediately!
To get the latest information on our web design division, friend New LifeStyles on Facebook , connect with us on LinkedIn, or follow us on Twitter.
Thanks for spending some time with our blog. Call us! We will be an effective part of your marketing campaign.
Doug
